Turquoise Informed Buyer

Now we recommend purchasing "Stabilized" Turquoise. This is treating the stone with resin to "seal" it. Why is this good? Firstly, because natural Turquoise is a rather porous stone which can absorb that spilled coffee or even the smoke from your cigarette. Secondly, it helps "seal" the beautiful blue color. When Turquoise "drys out" it turns green--a less desirable color.

We received calls after a Turquoise Special on QVC in January, 2005. They were selling a 14mm Turquoise Necklace for an AMAZING $139! We were just astounded as we buy directly from the mine. First off, Turquoise occurs naturally in crusts, so getting a solid 14mm bead is exceedingly rare. So we called and asked the following questions:

• "Is the stone treated in any way?"
  The telephone operator pulled up the description. Sure enough, no disclosures were given in the description. It wasn't even strung on silk--rather the more inferior polyester nylon.
• So next we asked--"Is there a Gemologist on Staff we could speak with?
  She informed us that they were only order takers and they didn't keep a Gemologist on staff--they were basically selling for someone else.
• Finally, I asked, "Well, is it even real Turquoise?"
  Her reply was, "Well, I think so."

Unfortunately, most lay buyers are not aware of just how heavily "faked" Turquoise is. Common fakes ALL BEING SOLD AS TURQUOISE are:

1) Howlite, which is a porous white stone that takes dye very nicely and has natural gray veins. So when dyed it looks very similar to a high grade of Turquoise with just a little veining. Dead giveaways? The stone is cheap (Howlite is very inexpensive) and a beautiful robin egg blue. Veining is minor and generally a pale gray. If you can damage a stone, crack it open. You'll see the color doesn't go all the way through the stone.
2) "Chalk" Turquoise - This is generally lower grade Turquoise ground up, mixed with epoxy and dye and reconstituted into what would appear to be a AAA Grade Turquoise . A perfect Robin Egg blue, with virtually no matrix. Dead giveaway? If it's cheap, it's likely fake. Now, if you like the look of a beautiful Grade AAA Turquoise and don't want to pay upwards of $1000 for it--then a substitute is just fine! Just be aware of what you're getting!
3) Finally, a lower grade of Turquoise that is dyed to imitate a higher grade of Turquoise. This is genuine Turquoise, but as the QVC television ad in January 2005 said, "Don't wear it in the shower". Why? The dye will bleed off and your beautiful necklace will be ruined! Now if you live in the Pacific Northwest (like we do), keeping things dry can be a real problem...

Our final statement to potential Turquoise purchasers--realize that Turquoise is a finite resource--sure new mines will probably be discovered, but fewer and fewer as the years go by--and genuine Turquoise is going to become harder and harder to get, especially in the high-grade round stones. It takes a large hunk of Turquoise to get a perfect stone with no matrix. In my opinion--in 25 years in the business--genuine stones are excellent investments as well as absolutely stunningly gorgeous to wear!